Calling Excel Male study interpreters !

[Fernando Almaguer]

I just read this study on high intensity excersize and increase CAC. What does this for bodybuilders and other athletes?

Is it something to even worry about?

Intense exercise encourages coronary artery calcification

A recent Circulation journal paper has focused on investigating the relationship between exercise volume and intensity and the progression of coronary atherosclerosis in middle-aged and older male athletes.

www.news-medical.net

 

[Deleted member 43589]

This seems to sum it all up....

Athletes can rest easy: Extreme exercise does not raise heart disease risk or mortality, study shows

High volumes of exercise are safe, even when coronary calcium levels are high, new research suggests.

www.sciencedaily.com

 

[Fernando Almaguer]

This seems to sum it all up....

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/01/190130175607.htm[/URL

http://I wonder which one is right... the OP is a more recent study, I think..

 

[Systemlord]

http://I wonder which one is right... the OP is a more recent study, I think..

Let common sense guide you, exercise is good for your health. My dad was a jogger his entire life. He trained for marathons three times a year, for three months per marathon in his 70’s and doesn’t have coronary artery disease. He did develop type 2 diabetes after finally settling down and giving up running because of a shoulder injury when he was younger.

His health went down hill after a period of little exercise.

 

[Nelson Vergel]

These participants had really good calcium scores before and after follow up

 

[Guided_by_Voices]

There is a well-known trend toward higher than "expected" levels of heart damage in very high-level endurance athletes. One of Peter Attia's podcast guests went through the biology of this. The key to avoiding this for most people is to avoid prolonged periods of heart-rates above the aerobic zone (see the Maffetone Method) and keep ultra-high intensity exercise fairly brief. Also, until recently, most endurance athletes were eating a diet that is not heart-optimal (i.e. sugar-burning, high-insulin) so that is likely a factor as well.

 

[Guided_by_Voices]

Also note that the linked article says that statin use increased during the follow-up period, however statins appear to cause accelerated calcification, and the article is not clear on whether that was corrected for, so it sounds possible that the study was conflating exercise with statin use.

 

[Deleted member 43589]

http://I wonder which one is right... the OP is a more recent study, I think..

I still think the link i put up covers both. If this were true we would have an epidemic of Olympic lifters, powerlifters, bodybuilderslomng distance runners and sprinters dying of heart attacks. Instead, the mortality of high intensity athletes has always been shown to have a much lower than average mortality rate.. I will see if I can find that study.

Read this statement again....."The majority of high-intensity athletes had low levels of coronary calcium, though their odds of having higher levels were 11 percent greater than men who exercised less. Most importantly, the researchers found that higher calcium scores did not raise the high-intensity athletes' risk for cardiovascular or all-cause mortality."

Dr. Levine stated, "The current study shows no increased risk of mortality in high-volume exercisers who have coronary artery calcium." He went on to say, Dr. Levine advises against using the protective effect of exercise to excuse poor lifestyle habits. "You cannot overcome a lifetime of bad behaviors -- smoking, high cholesterol, hypertension -- just from doing high levels of physical activity, so don't use that as a magical cure."

"The elite athletes Polich born in the early 20th century appear to have a lower rate of aging than the general population,"

A Most Interesting Data Set Covering the Longevity of Polish Elite Athletes Across Much of the 20th Century

Today I noticed an open access paper in which the authors examine mortality data for Polish Olympic athletes over the past 90 years or so, and compare it with established historical data for the general population. This blends two topics that are occasionally covered here at Fight Aging...

www.fightaging.org

"From this large, retrospective cohort study targeting 3546 Japanese Olympic athletes, we observed significant lower mortality among Olympians compared with the Japanese general population."

Olympic Athletes Have a Lower Mortality than the General Population

A number of studies have shown that elite athletes have a significantly lower mortality and longer life expectancy than the general population. It is unclear as to whether this is due to physical activity and training for fitness versus other mechanisms, as elite chess players appear to have...

www.fightaging.org

When elite athletes engaging in various sports are analysed together, their mortality is lower than that of the general population. In conclusion, long-term vigorous exercise training is associated with increased survival rates of specific groups of athletes.

Mortality and longevity of elite athletes - PubMed

The health benefits of leisure-time physical activity are well known, however the effects of engaging in competitive sports on health are uncertain. This literature review examines mortality and longevity of elite athletes and attempts to understand the association between long-term vigorous...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Participation in elite sport is generally favorable to lifespan longevity.

Do Elite Athletes Live Longer? A Systematic Review of Mortality and Longevity in Elite Athletes - PubMed

A majority of studies included in this review reported superior lifespan longevity outcomes for elite athletes compared to age- and sex-matched controls from the general population and other athletes.Several mechanisms within and between sports may have powerful effects on the overall lifespan...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Just released....December 2022

Conclusion
VPA of 15–20 min/week were associated with a 16–40% lower mortality HR, with further decreases up to 50–57 min/week. These findings suggest reduced health risks may be attainable through relatively modest amounts of VPA accrued in short bouts across the week.

Vigorous physical activity, incident heart disease, and cancer: how little is enough?

AbstractAims. Vigorous physical activity (VPA) is a time-efficient way to achieve recommended physical activity levels. There is a very limited understandi

academic.oup.com

This was just published....December 2022

Conclusion
Reductions in CVD risk may be achievable through higher PA volume and intensity, with the role of moderately intense PA appearing particularly important. This supports multiple approaches or strategies to PA participation, some of which may be more practical or appealing to different individuals.

Physical activity volume, intensity, and incident cardiovascular disease

AbstractAims. The interplay between physical activity (PA) volume and intensity is poorly understood in relation to cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. This stud

academic.oup.com

One thing we need to remember, in science, a single study means very little. It just shows that their data needs to be investigated further. Meanwhile the overwhelming majority of evidence shows high intensity and high volume exercise lower mortality rates. Its kind of like the creatine causing you to be bald because 1 study with very few subjects found DHT levels were higher. Interesting, but they did not investigate whether this cause baldness. Yet the internet is flooded with reports of how creatine causes baldness. Science does not work like that.

Remember, both the CDC and WHO have done tons of research that showed that the leading cause of death both in the USA and in the world is sedentary life styles. Anything you do other than sitting on the couch is going to increase your lifespan.

Probably a good time to look at this graph that came from a published study on heart risks between high intensity training (weights) and low intensity training /bicycling) Walking. All exerciseis good but high intensity seems to be healthier across the board, especially with older adults.

 

[Deleted member 43589]

Also note that the linked article says that statin use increased during the follow-up period, however statins appear to cause accelerated calcification, and the article is not clear on whether that was corrected for, so it sounds possible that the study was conflating exercise with statin use.

Exactly what I tried to point out to my EX-cardiologist. Statins use can cause/accelerate calcification.

Statins stimulate atherosclerosis and heart failure: pharmacological mechanisms - PubMed

In contrast to the current belief that cholesterol reduction with statins decreases atherosclerosis, we present a perspective that statins may be causative in coronary artery calcification and can function as mitochondrial toxins that impair muscle function in the heart and blood vessels through...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

 

[Deleted member 43589]

Here is another study that may explain the relevance of higher CAC scores in long distance runners.

Conclusions: Participants in the >2000 MET-min/wk group had a higher prevalence of CAC and atherosclerotic plaques. The most active group, however, had a more benign composition of plaques, with fewer mixed plaques and more often only calcified plaques. These observations may explain the increased longevity typical of endurance athletes despite the presence of more coronary atherosclerotic plaque in the most active participants.

 

[Deleted member 43589]

Here is something to remember for MOST all of us who do weight training. Optimal muscle hypertrophy occurs in the 6RM-12RM range as seen below This simply means that if your best 1RM bench press is 200lbs, weights between 120lbs and 160lbs for 6-12 reps is all you need to optimally grow (6-12RM). Intensity wise these are considered medium intensities where as high intensity would be 5RM-1RM or 85% - 100% intensity. HR wise, in the medium intensities the heart rate rises quickly and falls when you rest making it a type of high intensity training but it does not rise to a max HR like the lower reps (+85%), higher intensity would do. While some bodybuilder do train reps of 6, most only go 65%-75% for 8-12 reps. Very few go to the higher intensities as the amount of hypertrophy you gain compared to the risk of injury just don't make good sense, as seen below.

Hight intensity interval training (HIIT) is higher intensity (80-85% mHR), short duration (10-30 min). Health wise science recommends your exercise intensity while weight trainning must generally be at a moderate or vigorous level, all muscle groups trained at least 2 times a week for maximum benefit. The recently updated WHO guidelines recommend a minimum of 150 to 300 minutes of moderate activity per week or 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous activity. In on of the courses I teach we require students to do either 10,000 steps/day or 100 minutes of vigorous activity/wk monitired with a FitBit watch.

 

[Deleted member 43589]

Kind of a different direction but still based on mortality rates of males involved in high intensity sports.

Increased mortality rate and suicide in Swedish former elite male athletes in power sports​

Results indicate that, during the age period of 20–50 years, there was an excess mortality of around 45%. However, when analyzing the total study period, the mortality was not increased. Mortality from suicide was increased 2–4 times among the former athletes during the period of 30–50 years of age compared with the general population of men. Mortality rate from malignancy was lower among the athletes.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/sms.12122